![]() My 4 th graders would go over to him after recess or first thing in the morning and just snuggle in and give him a hug sometimes. Now of course, I wouldn’t use this in 3 rd grade or above because the kids might think you’re nuts, but I do have to say that even when I taught 4 th grade, I kept Oaf in my classroom, and I told my students that he was there anytime any of them wanted a little extra comfort. So, if a child comes to me and I think he or she might just need a little extra attention, I’ll ask him or her to go and tell Oaf all about it.Īnd, it is absolutely adorable to watch a six-year-old child go over to a giant teddy bear and complain, arms waving, all about Mica who took the extra ball at recess when it wasn't even his turn. If you’ve been listening to my podcast for awhile now, you know that this adorable, oversized bear, Oaf, has weighted paws, he lives in our reading corner amongst all of the books and on my teacher chair most of the time, and he loves, loves, loves to hear children’s’ stories and secrets. If my intuition – and I strongly encourage you to pay attention to your intuition – if my intuition is telling me that this child might just need a little extra attention right now, I love to redirect them towards my adorable, oversized, stuffed bear named Oaf. If a student who seems to complain about everything and finds a problem with any situation they’re in comes to me and wants to tattle on somebody, I am less likely to spend much time on it than if a child who rarely complains comes to me with a problem. Over time, as you get to know your students better, you start to gain a better understanding of their personalities and their patterns. I have 4 other tricks up my sleeve that I use depending on the situation, so you might want to incorporate some of them into your classroom. Now, I don’t rely on written apologies as the only way of dealing with tattling. ![]() Natural consequences work really well, and so does having a system in place for tattling and conflicts in your classroom. They also know that when they are writing about the conflict and their apology, they are responsible for catching up on any other work they need to do that they’ve missed as a result, or it’s homework. In this case, they needed time to settle down, and I needed to teach an art lesson, and they knew that writing an apology to own their part in the conflict was the norm in our classroom because they saw me ask kids to do this often.īecause it takes time away from other things they want or need to do in class, students don’t often even come to me to help them to solve their challenge (more on this later). Most of the time, conflicts between children are small, and they move past them even before you intervene. All they cared about was getting on with the art project that they had now missed the instruction for and had to find out from their friends how to do (another natural consequence). ![]() I love having kids write to explain their conflict and to apologize because it takes them some time to think about what it is they want to say, it helps me to understand more about what is going on here and whether it warrants further investigation or attention, and it’s a great first step towards helping kids to slow down and calm down before we work towards a resolution.Īlso, in my classroom, we wrote a LOT because it's a wonderful way for us to learn to articulate our feelings and communicate more effectively, so it was completely normal and expected that my students write to each other to help them to identify and own their part in the conflict.Īnd, when each student wrote their apology, I didn’t have the same expectations for each child. The point is, that by the time they had written their apologies and said I’m sorry for their part in the conflict, most of the time, they didn’t even care about it anymore. One of the best ways I've found to stop the "blame game" when kids have a problem with each other is to invite them to write about it to tell me what happened, and then offer an apology for their part in the conflict. Five Ways to Stop Tattling in Your Elementary Classroom Over the years, I've gathered 5 tried and true methods that will put an end to tattling in your classroom (or at least significantly diminish it) - while empowering young learners with the strategies they need to solve conflicts throughout their lives. ![]() It used to drive me crazy when my chronic tattlers would come running to me every single time something happened that they didn't like, and I found myself spending countless hours trying to sort out who spit on who first and why (I'm not kidding - listen to this week's show to hear the story)! I used to struggle with tattling in my own classroom for my first few years of teaching. Listen to or download this show now by clicking the play bar below:
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